Princess Princess Prince
by Simple-Minded Idiot
Summary: Sasuke, well, didn't even know how he got there – he had a feeling that perhaps it had something to do with Itachi OH, DEFINITELY. He knew that he was now a candidate for being a wife. Fairytale romance? No, thank you.


For **Makayla** (who's going to make me KenBya).

Happy, happy sappy stuff.

* * *

Sasuke's first crush had been a boy. The boy had been loud, rude, and annoying. He had yellow hair, blue eyes, and tanned skin. His face was round and plump. His eyes were large and they were, in Sasuke's opinion, very shiny. He was almost always grinning.

They were around six-years-old then.

Sasuke had no idea what the boy's name was.

* * *

It was morning in the Uchiha Compound. The roosters were crowing, more than half of the people who lived there were already awake and minding their own business. In one particular house there is where this story starts.

Uchiha Itachi and Sasuke were eating breakfast together in their kitchen / dining room. It had been a relatively quite morning until Itachi cleared his throat.

"The crown prince, my dearest younger brother, is a bisexual pervert," Itachi said. "He has a thing for fit, fair-skinned men and women. Most especially fit, fair-skinned, and dark-haired men and women. Right now, he's being made to search for his partner, one that he'll actually stick with. In two days, all candidates who wish to be that aforementioned partner will be sent off to the palace for some challenges."

"... What do I have to do with any of this?" Sasuke asked.

Surely Itachi, being the nice older brother that he was, wouldn't send his "dearest younger brother" off to such an event. Maybe Itachi was going to join this competition? He was a power-hungry maniac. Being the partner of the crown prince would mean having a lot of power. There was a high probability that Itachi would emerge as the victor if he did decide to join. After all, Itachi could do everything.

"You're going to be joining this competition and you're going to win, too," Itachi said.

Sasuke nodded. Of course he was right. Itachi was going to join – and say what?

"Back up, Itachi," Sasuke said, sounding rather alarmed. "You can't honestly be serious. _I_ am going to join?"

Itachi nodded.

"I can't join!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"Whyever not?" Itachi asked. "You have no sweetheart, nor do you fancy anyone. I think it's perfectly alright for you to join."

"YOU HAVE NO SWEETHEART OR CRUSH, TOO! WHY CAN'T YOU JOIN?!"

"That's unbecoming of you, Sasuke. If I joined, then I wouldn't be holding the clan by the reigns anymore. If you manage to win this competition, we'll have both the kingdom and the clan. If one fails, we still have the other."

"I can control the clan."

"No, you can't. Eldest."

"This is utterly unfair!"

* * *

"Why am I doing this again?" Sasuke asked with a groan.

"It's because you love me," Itachi said.

"I don't think it was that."

"Well, then, how about it's because my words are absolute, are the law."

"I get it, I get it. Don't go all megalomaniac on me now."

Sasuke sighed. He then began the long walk to the palace. Hopefully, he would be able to survive those three months of _testing_. And hopefully, he wouldn't become the _chosen one_. He, along with the rest of Konoha's non-living-inside-the-palace people, didn't even know what the crown prince looked like. Not to mention, Sasuke didn't have any intention of being tied to someone through marriage. He had been intending to live his whole life as a single man. No attachment to anyone other than his brother and the rest of his clan. An Uchiha through and through.

Besides, Uzumaki Sasuke didn't at all sound good to his ears.

* * *

It was Sasuke's first time to wear such a thing. He felt as if he looked like a cross between a taiko-drummer and a sushi vendor and a fisherman. Still, he wouldn't be one to argue. At least what he was wearing was something comfortable. And in dark or agreeable colors, too. It was certainly much better than wearing a heavy kimono or perhaps eye-scathingly-colored garb.

He had thought that they, meaning he and the other candidates, would be wearing expensive-looking kimono and doing... wifely duties. But they weren't. Far from it, it seemed.

They all looked like common working folk. And one of the challenges – the only challenge so far that Kakashi, the palace adviser, had told them – in the competition would be to clean the palace each and every day of their stay in it. They would be assigned different venues each day. One of these venues would be the crown prince's room.

Sasuke, deciding that it would be best to start his chore right away, made his way to his assigned place. The corridor to the farthest west that opened out into one of the many palace gardens. But before he could even make a move, he heard someone call him. He stopped walking and, soon enough, someone was beside him.

"Sasuke-kun," the someone said, "good luck!"

It was Sakura. She had a smile on her face. She genuinely seemed to be wishing him good luck.

The two of them got fairly well together. She had, once upon a time, a crush on him. Obsessed on him like the many females around him. But she'd stop doing so two years ago.

"Good luck to you, too," he said.

It was only right to return the favor.

She beamed at him some more before she went off to go to her own place.

Sasuke stared at her back. He started walking again when she disappeared into one of the many hallways. He thought she was odd. Who, after all, would wish a fellow competitor good luck, especially in such a special competition? He shrugged it off, thinking that perhaps it was one of the many quirks of women that he, as a male, would never come to understand.

As he walked to his destination, he began thinking about the many things that could be asked of them to do. He had come with quite a lot of odd things. Odd, but viable because royalty would be ordering them around. The powerful knew hardly any boundaries.

When he'd gotten to the corridor that he was to clean, he saw a bucket of water and a generous amount of floor towels. At least he would be working with quality cleaning utensils. Sasuke picked up one of the towels and dipped it in the bucket of water. After doing so, he squeezed the water out of the towel and then proceeded to mop the floor.

If one was an amateur, they'd end up tripping. But Sasuke was no amateur to the art of cleaning. He cleaned their house. Made it sparkle like a temple. And he would be damned if he didn't do the same to this corridor.

After a while, Sasuke heard footsteps – yes, yes, his hearing was just_that_ good; paranoia made it so.

"You're new to the palace?" a boy, Sasuke was assuming this was the owner of those footsteps asked. "As a palace worker, I mean."

"No, no," Sasuke said, momentarily stopping his ministrations on the wooden floor that he'd been cleaning and the boy was currently defiling to look at the speaker – it was a blond-haired boy. "I'm one of the contestants for the crown prince's partner."

"Oh."

"Would you mind stepping off the floor? It would be such a great help."

"You're really dedicated to your job."

The boy jumped from the floor and into the garden beside the open hallway which the wooden floor Sasuke was cleaning belonged to. He walked closer to Sasuke, yet he didn't step inside anymore.

"I've never seen the floor sparkle as much as this!" the boy said, apparently amazed.

"It still doesn't look clean enough for me," Sasuke said.

"Don't be discontented! Why, I think that I can even see my face on the floor!"

"Don't be silly. It isn't that clean. You should look at our house's floorboards. You can honestly see your face there."

The boy whistled.

"Now I feel jealous," he said.

Sasuke smirked at him before returning to work.

"Perfection," Sasuke said.

The other boy nodded.

"Perfectionist," the boy said.

"Yes, yes, quite," Sasuke said.

"But that's actually something useful!"

"... I suppose so."

"What? You don't mean that you haven't thought of it that way?"

"Well, would you think of it that way when you're merely concentrated on being perfect? Sans everything except the criticisms. That's the way to perfection. Letting the compliments get to your head would just make everything fall."

"You're right there, I guess. Can't really say much, to be frank. I'm not a perfectionist."

"I wouldn't have expected you to."

"That's an insult, isn't it?"

"Take it as you will." The humor was in Sasuke's voice.

The boy chuckled.

"You've turned out to be very interesting, Uchiha Sasuke," he said.

Sasuke turned to look at the boy. He was a bit shocked. How could the other know his name? It wasn't as if he was famous enough for the palace workers to actually know his name and what he looked like.

Unfortunately, when he turned around, the boy was no longer in sight.

Sasuke hoped to see more of him. Then ask him how he'd known.

* * *

"Hello there, Sasuke!" the same blond-haired boy that he'd talked with that morning exclaimed. "You're the first to finish your task!"

The boy was seated on the king's throne.

And by god, Sasuke had never been surprised in his whole life.

_That_ was the crown prince, Uzumaki Naruto?

"Shocked, aren't you?" Naruto said with a grin.

"Yes, yes I am," Sasuke said. "I hadn't supposed that you really were an idiot."

* * *

It was Sasuke's second night inside the palace. He'd just had dinner and, fortunately or not, it was his turn to have an after-dinner-talk with Naruto. Just so that the two of them would get together even more. After all, both parties had the right to know more about the person that they might end up marrying in the future.

"I've wondered," Sasuke said as soon as he and Naruto were comfortably seated on the hallway that Sasuke had cleaned yesterday, "why the candidates aren't dolled up like geisha."

"The competition won't be based on beauty alone," Naruto said, a thoughtful tone descending on his voice. Sasuke thought that it was rather weird hearing a thoughtful Naruto.

"But I thought that you were partial to beautiful people," Sasuke said.

Naruto grinned at that.

"I am, I am. But, I mean, we are talking about a lifetime partner and not a one-time thing or a fling," Naruto said. "I wouldn't care if I ended up marrying an ogre as long as they'd be kind and they'd love me forever more!"

"You're such a sap," Sasuke said after a while.

"And proud of it!"

Naruto discreetly stretched his arm to cop a feel on Sasuke. Only to get his hand nearly broken. It was such a wonder the way Sasuke still seemed to be composed. It was, however, not a wonder that Sasuke's grip seemed to be tightening by the second.

"I get it now! No groping!" Naruto whined.

Sasuke released his hand and said, "Good."

"Prude," Naruto muttered.

"I merely do not appreciate being inappropriately touched."

"Yes, definitely a prude."

"I suppose that you don't like prudes."

"Eh, not really."

"You're hesitant. With your answer, that is."

"You didn't give a question!"

"Still remains that fact."

"Wait! You're just trying to make me unaware of the fact that you know that I've just managed to point out a mistake of yours, aren't you?"

"I can't understand you at all."

"I knew it!"

"You are," Sasuke looked at Naruto, "really an idiot."

"Is that the way to talk to your prince? At least show some respect so I'll get the feeling that I am royalty and stuff."

"Respect, I believe, should be earned."

Naruto huffed and pouted.

Sasuke smirked and went back to admiring the landscape presented to him by the garden.

* * *

"It seems as if Uzumaki-sama is really fond of you, Sasuke-kun," Sakura chirped.

The two of them were making Naruto's lunch. Sasuke had the idea to poison it, but went against it due to his better side. And to the fact that there would've been a witness, namely, Sakura. Sakura who would've, most likely, tried to stop him from doing the dirty deed, too.

And then it wasn't as if he could make his cooking bad. His perfectionist self did not agree to such a plan.

"Really?" he murmured as he stirred the soup.

"Yes. I believe that you have the best chance of winning in this," she continued

"Aren't you in this competition, too, Sakura? Why are you saying that then?" he asked.

Yes. It had been rather odd, the way Sakura seemed to urge him to do his best.

"Because I hope not to win," she replied.

"Why did you enter in the first place then?" Sasuke asked yet again.

"Because I'm his friend. If no one here seems to have caught his eye... then I shall gladly take the place of the one whom he'll marry. He's already went through a lot. I wouldn't want him to go through a sad and utterly loveless marriage. Even if it means that I'll be leaving... I'll be leaving Lee behind."

"You are a selfless person." He was assuming that Lee was her boyfriend.

Sakura, with a smile, shook her head.

"Not quite, Sasuke-kun," she said.

"You're a perplexing person, then, Sakura," Sasuke said.

"That's exactly one of the things that makes Naruto love you."

And Sasuke was left wondering how he and Naruto and Naruto's apparent love for him had gotten pulled into the talk of their conversation.

* * *

On the second month of Sasuke's stay in the palace. He was given a week to sleep with Naruto on the same bed. He'd also made Naruto promise not to ever violate him – asleep or not. Naruto had agreed under the threat of castration and possible breakage of bones.

Tonight was Sasuke's third night.

As with every night with Sasuke, the two of them were sitting on the bed. They talked first before they went to bed. Sasuke was an uncharacteristically chatty person when it came to such conversations.

Sure, perhaps chatty wasn't exactly the word... but it was quite close it!

"What did you think of this idea when you'd heard of it? Surely you weren't the one who chose this idea," Sasuke said.

"I was angry," Naruto said, his eyes glazing a bit, signifying that he was partially going down memory lane, "but I suppose that that's a given."

"Shouldn't you be used to things like these? Since you are royalty, I've assumed that life was imposed upon you."

"It is. But, you know, I've always been a liberal thinker and stuff. That's why I even turned bi in the first place! Equal opportunity and so and so. I was really happy when the folks were just cool with it."

"Of course they would be," Sasuke snorted at this point of his sentence, "almost everyone in your family is a pervert. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them turned out to be equal opportunity seekers, too."

"One of my relatives is in a threesome if that helps."

"That's exactly what I've been talking about."

"Now that you've proven your point, how 'bout I ask a question? Let's see... Why did you decide to become a candidate? You sure seem to be against the idea and all."

"It was my brother. I'd really planned on becoming single until the day I died."

"Oh." Naruto was deeply disappointed. He hoped that it didn't show too much.

"Ah, well, I guess that it's alright either way anyway." A hint of a blush was beginning to show on Sasuke's face.

Naruto grinned.

"Slowly falling in love with my devious charms?" he slyly asked.

"No," Sasuke said. This was accompanied by a whack to the head for Naruto. "I just thought that I might be doing our country a favor. After all, you don't seem like the diplomatic type."

"Now that's just mean!"

But Naruto was still happy. Very much so. Sasuke was, after all, Sasuke. And he talked in a way that one would have to really look underneath the underneath.

"I'm going to sleep," Sasuke suddenly said.

"It's only been a few minutes," Naruto said.

"I feel tired all of a sudden."

Naruto shrugged. He turned off the lamp.

"Sasuke... hasn't changed a lot," Naruto whispered. And this was done hours after the two of them really went to bed. When Sasuke was more than well asleep. This was done during then because Naruto knew that Sasuke didn't like overly romantic – sappy, as Sasuke himself would call it and, inevitably, Naruto – atmospheres.

He touched Sasuke's cheek with his forefinger. There was nothing in his eyes aside from adoration. Just how many days and nights he had dreamed of being this close to Sasuke. He was so irrevocably in love with the boy that he would give anything just to be with him.

These nights with Sasuke were the best. Naruto already knew that he could die a happy man. Being that close to Sasuke... already felt like heaven to him. He was quite thankful at that point. It would be alright if Sasuke never ended up being his in the long run. Because moments like these made him think that Sasuke was his.

Even if they were merely moments.

Naruto smiled at Sasuke fondly.

"Naruto," Sasuke muttered in his sleep.

Naruto's ears perked. Sasuke was dreaming about him?

"You're undeniably an idiot," Sasuke continued.

Naruto frowned. Even while asleep, Sasuke never failed to insult him. One would even wonder how Naruto could fall in love with someone who smote him so.

* * *

"Oi! Leader!" a kid shouted.

It was Sasuke's third month. Only a couple more weeks before Naruto would give out his answer. This time around, he and Naruto were out of the palace for a date. A date which really couldn't be called one because it seemed far from the romantic vision of a date. Then again, how could it be romantic when there was Sasuke the prude and Naruto the pervert?

Naruto turned around.

"What is it, Konohamaru?" he asked.

And so that was probably how their not-date ended up with them playing (mostly Naruto though) with a bunch of kids that had branded Naruto as their leader for some heroic deed that Konohamaru, which Sasuke had dubbed the Naruto enthusiast, told Sasuke.

Naruto, for some reason, found the whole tale quite embarrassing.

Sasuke thought otherwise.

In fact, he thought that it was quite opposite that by the end of the day, he'd looked at Naruto and said, "Perhaps respect has already been earned."

Naruto ended up thinking that maybe he needed to play around Konohamaru and his gang a little bit more. A show of appreciation and such.

* * *

THEN came the day that everyone had been waiting for.

"Naruto-sama will now give out his answer," Genma said, "so we're requesting everyone to please quiet down and merely look at the balcony where he is right now."

"I – LIKE – YOU – THE – MOST – " Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs, surprising a lot of people, too. "SA – SU – KE! I hope that you'll choose me, too!"

He took a deep breath after that, and then looked at Sasuke earnestly. A dozen other eyes looked at Sasuke earnestly.

"YOU'RE SO EMBARRASSING!" Sasuke shouted. Then he smirked, "DOBE!"

"TEME!" Naruto exclaimed.

And then he laughed.


End file.
